Higher-Order Processes Specification (HOPS)

HOPS is a universal speci¬≠fi¬≠cation formalism with high-level concepts for describing inter¬≠action. It combines the description of behavioral and structural aspects of a system in the same notation. A HOPS system consists of interacting sub-systems. These can also exist independently and share properties with the whole system. Essential modeling concepts are processes, operations, components and sub-processes.

HOPS can describe interactive systems from different viewpoints. Partly redundant models, at different levels of abstraction, can be used to enable description of emerging constraints that may be distributed across the whole system.

Tool support makes it possible to animate HOPS-models and other represen¬≠tations assigned to elements of the formal models. By this means, the creation of usage scenarios, prototypical user interfaces, or illustrations of an application context, are supported.